Well….how was the first term. BUSY! Projects, essays, presentations, proposals!

I’ll start with the class. There are 2 Brazilians, 1 Italian, 1 Czech, 2 Brits and myself, the Canadian. Everyone is great and we all get along really well. As in every proper university class, there is a lot of beer consumed between everyone, definitely some more than others. The Czech was so excited when the Czech Republic consumed more beer than Germany last year.

Our first project was to design an annotated version of the Kama Sutra. Now, before you get all worked up, we were not supplied the chapters of substance, if you know what I mean (wink wink, nudge nudge). But seriously, it turned out to be a difficult project. There were 3 sets of commentaries and I had to develop a system where the reader could navigate through them all easily.

The next project was wayfinding. We designed a guide book for the Uni. Our department should really be classified as a museum. There are numerous historical printers and printing related material scattered throughout the building, not to mention a financially viable commercial print shop. We were given the task of showing a visitor where they might be able to find all these amazing printers, and give them a little background into the wonderful world of printing.

The last project of this term was to redesign a residential utility bill. I know what you are thinking... BORING! But in reality, there are significant information design issues in a utility bill…Only form the mouth of an information designer, I think. Alright, I’ll move on.



The Uni is located about a one half hour walk from where we live. The building itself is in is an old war hospital, and we are located across a small lake from the rest of campus. Some things are the same all over the world, I think. Everyone wants the ‘weirdos’ to be somewhere else. ….. it is quiet and I get to walk across this cute little bridge everyday, which is usually covered with ducks, swans and Canada Geese. Sometimes they waddle along in front of you talking to each other. It’s pretty great. I have also however seen a couple rats scurry across the footpath.

We are taking a field trip for a week in March to Italy(!!!!) to look at some art. You know…. maybe we will see a few pieces by Michelangelo and Da Vinci, a couple little things they have just kicking around. I still cannot get over the history of this place. This is where it all happened!

Graeme and I are off to Paris for Christmas, where we will spend 4 days soaking in the Parisian culture (and hopefully learning a bit of French).

Joyeux Noël